California 8-Year-Old Killed in Drive-by-Shooting -- Allegedly by Man Who Shot at Home 4 Separate Times
Jonah Hwang loved superheroes, especially Spiderman and The Flash, and he tried to be a pint-sized superhero himself.
For Valentine’s Day, the 8-year-old made by hand different cards for each student in his class at Cortez Elementary School in Pomona, California. When one of his younger cousins was sad, he gave him his prized light saber. And when he got a new watch, instead of keeping it, he gave it to a friend.
“That was just the kind of person he was,” family friend and pastor Adam Donner tells PEOPLE. “In the short time he was here he really touched us all significantly. He was well-loved and loved-well.”
Jonah, who was adopted from an orphanage in Taiwan less than three years ago, was killed February 20 in a drive-by shooting. Jonah was playing inside a Pomona home, with his family, visiting friends for a weekly church dinner, when he was struck by a bullet in the head.
No one else was hurt, but five other children witnessed the shooting. Jonah was transported to the Pomona Valley Medical Center where he died.
Jonah’s killing remained unsolved until Sunday, when police arrested 35-year-old Pomona truck driver Sengchan Houl. Houl, who is being held on $2 million bail, was charged Tuesday with the “special circumstance” murder of Jonah. He was also charged with shooting from a motor vehicle and four counts of shooting at an inhabited dwelling.
He is scheduled to be arraigned April 26 and information about his lawyer was currently unavailable.
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Police say Houl was arrested the day after he fired multiple rounds at the same house where Jonah was hit. Houl had allegedly shot at the home four times since January.
“We are confident the same weapon was used in all four shootings, and when we arrested Houl he was in possession of that weapon on his person,” Pomona Police Department captain Mike Ellis tells PEOPLE.
It is not clear why Houl allegedly targeted the house of Jonah’s parents’ friends. “We don’t have a relationship or the motive,” says Ellis.
Referring to Jonah’s parents and their friends, Ellis says, “They are very good families they go to the same church. Everyone involved is a teacher. It is very unusual. It is still a question but it is one we need to answer so we are continuing to work that.”
Ellis says Houl’s background didn’t show a propensity for violence. “He had a very minor conviction,” he says. “I believe it was a drunk in public conviction many years ago. There was nothing violent and no criminal history that would show any tendencies like this.”
Ellis says the family that owned the home has no gang ties.
The four drive-by shootings occurred on Jan. 30, Feb. 20, March 7 and March 24, says Ellis. Multiple shots were fired each time, but the Feb. 20 shooting was the only time people were in the house, including Jonah.
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Donner says Jonah’s family is still trying to make sense of the senseless death of their little super hero.
“They are grieving,” he says. “Just because there is an arrest it doesn’t make it better.”
But, he says, “There is a sense of relief that somebody is still not out there.”
